Do you have an iPhone and want a free GPS navigation app? Here is it.
A couple of months ago I was researching iPhone navigation apps for the United Kingdom as I was going to be driving a rental car over there for a long weekend. Of course The first ones I found were the good old TomTom and such. However, I also discovered something called NavFree which was absolutely free to download. I thought this couldn’t be so I tried it out.
NavFree is really free. Map data are coming from the OpenStreetMap project. That’s why the developers don’t have to pay hefty license fees to TeleAtlas or other commercial vendors of map data. The quality of NavFree’s road data is really good and the software always guided me well to my destinations. You don’t need a live Internet connection as all the map data etc. are included in the actual app. The UK version is about 300 MB, the U.S. close to 2 GB. So you want an iPhone with plenty of memory.
As I said, apparently the OpenStreetMap project has come a really long way already. I was impressed with the level of detail. Recently I also used the U.S. version which worked fine too. It had the tiniest roads in the most remote villages. Points of interest such as museums and airports are included as well.
One essential accessory I recommend to buy is a holder that plugs into the car’s electric outlet and also provides an FM transmitter. That way you can receive the audio commands of the navigation system through your car radio. The iPhone speaker is not good enough on a noisy road, so this makes a huge difference. Also this lets you play your music and podcasts through the car’s audio system. You can find these on eBay for very little money.



